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Unemployment figures fall

IoD respond to job figures

Responding to the latest labour market statistics, which showed a UK fall in unemployment of 45,000 over the three months to March but only a slight decline in Wales figures, Robert Lloyd Griffiths, director of the Institute of Directors in Wales, said:

The UK figures raise half a cheer for the economy but unemployment in Wales remains a real headache.

It’s good news that headline unemployment measures are down across the UK, but the Welsh unemployment figure remains static at 9%. That’s already considerably higher than the UK average and it’s a concern.

There’s also bad news in the average earnings figures. Average earnings growth including bonuses has collapsed from 1.3 per cent to just 0.1 per cent.

Excluding bonuses, average earnings growth stands at 2 per cent, which is way behind inflation.

– Robert Lloyd Griffiths, director of the Institute of Directors in Wales